The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) have kicked against the growing trend of converting colleges of education to universities in Nigeria.

They described the development as worrisome, considering the pivotal roles colleges of education play in producing teachers for the basic education level in the country.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, and President COEASU, Dr. Smart Olugbeko, stated this in Abuja at a three-day national conference and workshop on ‘Digital Pedagogy and Fundable Research Proposal Writing’ organised by COEASU in collaboration with the Committee of Provosts.

Echono, who expressed dismay at the development, questioned the rationale behind it as existing colleges of education are not producing enough teachers for the country’s primary schools.

He urged the federal and state governments to prioritise education at the basic level, citing the examples of Germany and Japan where teachers at the basic level earn more than their counterparts at the tertiary level.

His words: “This penchant to want to convert colleges of education to universities, frankly I see no need for it. Universities already have faculties of education. And many of the conventional universities have this already. Why don’t we produce enough for this basic level first? We can have some level of specialisation because improvements come. And some of them already have that. But do we want to convert all our colleges of education to universities when we are not producing enough for our primary schools?”

“And you know the concept of the pyramid. The highest number of enrolment is at the primary level; because people begin to drop out as they move to higher levels. So, that is where we need the highest number of teachers. And in countries that get it right, I can give examples of Germany and Japan; the teachers at the basic level earn more than the teachers even at the tertiary level.”

Also speaking, Olugbeko warned that there would be negative consequences if there are no colleges of education in the country.

The move, the COEASU President argued, is a misplaced priority on the part of the government.

The academic called on the government to borrow a leaf from China where universities are being converted to technical institutions.

“Doing that is at the peril of the basic level of education, because when we talk about colleges of education, they were established for the purpose of catering for the basic level of education. And this is the level of education that anybody who wants to be literate will need to pass through. They are specially dedicated to train people that will teach at this level,” he said.

He referred to Lagos State, according to him, all that state-owned polytechnics and colleges of education have been converted to universities.

“In Lagos State today, there is no polytechnic, or college of education at the level of the state. They have converted all of them to universities and this will have dire consequences on the state because while countries that are making waves in technology are converting their universities to polytechnics, as it was done in China, what we have in Nigeria is the reverse; where we see our legislators sponsoring bills to convert colleges of education to universities because they already have existing structures. To us, this will have dire consequences on our education,” he warned.

The Guardian gathered that no fewer than 25 colleges of education have been converted to universities by the federal and state governments in the last few years, even as several bills to convert more of such institutions to varsities are at various stages at both the National and State Assemblies.

In March this year, during his courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of TETFund in Abuja, Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, revealed that all the state-owned colleges of education would be converted to universities.

Also, in March 2022, former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, received approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to upgrade the state-owned Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, to a university.

Similarly, the immediate-past governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, in 2021, announced the conversion of the College of Education, Agbor, to the Delta State University of Education.

In the same token, in October 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the conversion of four federal Colleges of Education (CoEs) to Federal Universities of Education.

Other affected institutions include Abia State Polytechnic; Abia State College of Education; Abia State College of Health Sciences and Management Studies; Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro; Federal Polytechnic, Offa; Yaba College of Technology and the Kaduna State Polytechnic, among others.